1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a light emitting diode and a light emitting diode manufactured thereby.
2. Description of the Related Art
A light emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that can emit light of various colors due to electron-hole recombination occurring at a p-n junction when a current is supplied thereto. Such an LED is advantageous over a filament-based light emitting device in that it has a long lifespan, low power usage, superior initial-operation characteristics, and high vibration resistance. These factors have continually boosted the demand for LEDs. Particularly, group III nitride semiconductors that can emit light in a blue/short wavelength region have recently drawn much attention.
Nitride semiconductor crystals, constituting a light emitting device using the group III nitride semiconductor, are grown on a sapphire or SiC substrate. In order to grow the semiconductor crystals, a plurality of gas-state sources are deposited on the substrate by a chemical vapor deposition process. The light emission performance and reliability of a semiconductor light emitting device may be greatly affected by the quality of semiconductor layers (crystallinity, doping uniformity, and the like). Here, the quality of semiconductor layers may depend on the structure, internal environment and usage conditions of a vapor deposition apparatus used for the growth of semiconductor thin films. Therefore, there is a need in this technical field for a method of improving the quality of semiconductor layers by optimizing the vapor deposition process.